tumbling forward

 

It was hard to say if Chance knew exactly what was going on with Rosie these days. Sure, school wasn't like it used to be. No Homecoming. Hardly a football game to go to with so many COVID rules in place. 

Still, he felt she was slowly disappearing from him. They usually hung out on Friday nights at her Aunt's place and usually babysat. Unfortunately with so few places to go, they went out less and less. Although,  he thought it would be more with the pumpkin patch opening and a few places they could enjoy the outdoors. Yet it never seemed to happen.

"I feel like the worst boyfriend in the world," he finally talked to Lynsey about it, who in turn told him to call Rosie's Aunt and see if she could give him any insight. So he got up the nerve and called Ellie.

"I'm not sure I can be much help," Ellie told him. "I don't know if any of us can really help," Ellie told Chance about Rosie's dad who was back in rehab. "She's waited forever for him to come home. He's always on the road." He was a truck driver, but due to a recent accident, he'd had his license revoked. He was in the hospital with a broken arm and a broken leg. He hadn't even called to let Rosie or any of them know. "She's pretty hurt, right now, and I know she doesn't want you to be bothered."

"But, but I am, because she won't tell me anything, anymore," Chance explained that he wished she would talk to him and that he'd thought they'd cleared this up, already, but obviously not.

"I know it hurts, but what can I say, you're here for her which is something her dad isn't. Maybe, maybe he's ashamed that he's not the dad she knew when she was little," Ellie said he'd changed a lot in recent years. He'd been through a divorce and had hurt his knees from a welding job he used to do. Thus, he'd taken an excessive amount of painkillers. Rosie's dad was a jack of trades. "Even, I never expected he'd hit such an all-time low. I knew him when he was growing up and I used to think he was the strongest person I ever knew."

The more she spoke of him, Chance had to wonder if Rosie's dad had been her Aunt's first love. It was sad to see that nothing lasts forever. Not even a first love, or even a Dad's love for that matter.

Chance felt he needed to step up, but he wasn't sure how. All he had was his shelving job and he lived with his brother Casey. Still, Rosie was in high school. At least, now he thought he might know Rosie better.

Being her boyfriend was more than going out and having fun. It also meant being there for those times that weren't celebrations and the thrill of the moment.  It was texting her first thing in the morning and the last text before bed and those phone calls in-between.

At the moment, he was trying to make the perfect microwave brownie for her. But the first one was overcooked and crumbly (which he ate). Then he figured out he was using self-rising flour (he ate that one too). By the third or the fourth, it was just a little too gooey (he ate those too.) Finally, it was perfect and he brought the warm brownie to her it a little rectangle container he baked it in which was pink and girly. 

She thought it was funny, of course. After all, he was no chef.